LONDON — A parole board adjourned Thursday without deciding whether to release Ronnie Biggs, an ailing veteran of the "Great Train Robbery" who wants to spend his final years with his son.

The Parole Board of England and Wales said a decision should be reached by July, when Biggs would have served the 10 years necessary to qualify for parole.

Biggs, 79, is arguing that his severe health problems mean he is no longer a threat. He received a 30-year sentence for his role in the fabled train caper. His bid for freedom may be weakened by the more than three decades he spent abroad after escaping from prison in 1965.

Biggs was part of a gang who stopped a mail train on the Glasgow-to-London line on Aug. 8, 1963, making off with more than 125 mailbags jammed with cash. Their take amounted to roughly 2.6 million pounds, or about $3.8 million.

The train driver was severely beaten and left unconscious.

Biggs and other members of the gang were eventually tracked down, and he was convicted in January 1964. He escaped from Wandsworth Prison in south London in 1965 after serving less than two years of a 30-year sentence.

He fled to France, where he had plastic surgery to alter his appearance, and went through Spain, Australia and Panama before settling in Brazil.